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[tburns]

Hey everyone,

Long story short, a friend and I took his boat in to a certain marine service center to have:

1) a kicker plate installed (which we had manufactured externally and provided)

2) plugs installed for downriggers (which again, we provided)

Before the work was commenced, we advised the shop that our budget for the project was $1,000.  Shortly after starting mounting the kicker plate, we were informed that the swim grid would have to be reinforced.  They brought in a fab guy to make a couple brackets, poof $330.  Even with this though I would expect that to be a fairly quick job. But that being said, add to the job:

3) reinforce swim grid with metal brackets

Now invoice time comes and we are being told that between (1) and (3) they worked for 9 hours!  On top of that it apparently took 3 hours to run the wires for the downriggers to the battery...  All in all the bill for this work is ~$2,300... 

Do you think this is fair?  What would you do in our situation?

[Spawn Sack]

Seems a bit fishy. A good shop should have been able to take a good look at your boat and give you an accurate ballpark quote/estimate before the work begins. IMO, for all those extra costs to pop up obviously they didn't make a great effort to look the boat over before it went in.

We've recently had a bunch of work done on our welded aluminum river boat. Swim grid welded on transom, custom down rigger brackets made, and some other stuff. Before I agreed to have the work done the staff member and I took a GOOD look at the job, I asked any questions I had, and the ballpark price was agreed on before I left without my boat. With the swim grid we recently had done, the guy called when he was working on it and suggested I add another gusset to reinforce the other side of the grid. He said it would be about another $100. I trust the guy and his explanation made sense so I gave him the green light.

Anyway, if I were in your shoes I would just pay the bill, get over it, and not go back to this boat shop. I use both Balmer Fabrication in Abby and Venture River Boats in Chilliwack and would highly recommend both. I feel like they work on your boat like it is their own boat. Neither of them do cheap work, but I have never had an issue with a huge surprise bill.

A couple more thoughts...

You said you told the shop your budget was 1000 +/-, but did they actually agree to work the work within this price point? In other words, your budget is a moot point if the going rate for such a job far exceeds what you'd like to pay. At any rate, IMO a good shop has good communication, takes a good look at the boat, and give you a accurate estimate.

Case in point: had my boat in to get the swim grid welded on. Shop calls after it was in for an hour. Turns out the stern is full of expanding foam which could smoke or catch on fire! Guy said could be 2-3 hours labor to carefully cut out the foam properly (at 100 bucks an hour!). I said I'll come get the boat, do the foam work myself (took about 2 hours to carefully cut around all the hoses, wiring, etc + clean up of foam bits EVERYWHERE) then I brought the boat back another day. Point here is they could have just did the foam work and billed me for it and told me about it when I came to get the boat. But they didn't, they called and kept me in the loop, and asked for approval before doing work that was going to well exceed the $ estimate. Now THAT is a shop I'll go back to!

[Spawn Sack]

For kicks here is the work we recently had done at Venture River Boats. The swim grid was a kit from King Fisher. The come stock on the new KF 1625 Falcon which is basically the same hull as our 2011 Harbercraft Falcon 1625. I talked to the manager of operations at KF in Vernon and he assured me it would be a perfect fit on our boat, so we figured it would be cheaper than having one custom made, plus we like it so we ordered one up!

Nice clean tig welds by Venture River Boats. The extra gusset on the left side was recommended for extra reinforcement/strength. I have some pretty large friends so I thought it would be a good idea if one of them decided to put all their weight on one of the corners.

 

[tburns]

Seems a bit fishy. A good shop should have been able to take a good look at your boat and give you an accurate ballpark quote/estimate before the work begins. IMO, for all those extra costs to pop up obviously they didn't make a great effort to look the boat over before it went in.

We've recently had a bunch of work done on our welded aluminum river boat. Swim grid welded on transom, custom down rigger brackets made, and some other stuff. Before I agreed to have the work done the staff member and I took a GOOD look at the job, I asked any questions I had, and the ballpark price was agreed on before I left without my boat. With the swim grid we recently had done, the guy called when he was working on it and suggested I add another gusset to reinforce the other side of the grid. He said it would be about another $100. I trust the guy and his explanation made sense so I gave him the green light.

Anyway, if I were in your shoes I would just pay the bill, get over it, and not go back to this boat shop. I use both Balmer Fabrication in Abby and Venture River Boats in Chilliwack and would highly recommend both. I feel like they work on your boat like it is their own boat. Neither of them do cheap work, but I have never had an issue with a huge surprise bill.

A couple more thoughts...

You said you told the shop your budget was 1000 +/-, but did they actually agree to work the work within this price point? In other words, your budget is a moot point if the going rate for such a job far exceeds what you'd like to pay. At any rate, IMO a good shop has good communication, takes a good look at the boat, and give you a accurate estimate.

Case in point: had my boat in to get the swim grid welded on. Shop calls after it was in for an hour. Turns out the stern is full of expanding foam which could smoke or catch on fire! Guy said could be 2-3 hours labor to carefully cut out the foam properly (at 100 bucks an hour!). I said I'll come get the boat, do the foam work myself (took about 2 hours to carefully cut around all the hoses, wiring, etc + clean up of foam bits EVERYWHERE) then I brought the boat back another day. Point here is they could have just did the foam work and billed me for it and told me about it when I came to get the boat. But they didn't, they called and kept me in the loop, and asked for approval before doing work that was going to well exceed the $ estimate. Now THAT is a shop I'll go back to!

When we came back in after they told us about the reinforcements needed for the swim grid, we re-iterated our budget.  They verbally agreed that it the job wouldn't exceed $1,000.  That portion came to ~$1,500 after all was said and done.  i"m also pretty skeptical that installing 2 plugs for downriggers could have taken anywhere near 3 hours, unless I'm paying for the mechanic's lunch hour.

Really appreciate the detailed response Spawn.  Cheers

[doja]

Get some quotes from other shops and see how it looks then...